With week 1 of the 2017-2018 NFL season officially in the books (and week 2 actually underway with last night’s Texans-Bengals game), EA has released the roster update forMadden NFL 18. The player ratings changes in the update are a result of week 1 performances in real life.
The updated week 1 player ratings can be seen in full here, but here are some notable changes:
Upgrades
Seattle Seahawks DT Sheldton Richardson: +5 Overall (86 OVR)
LA Rams ROLB Jatavis Brown: +3 Overall (79 OVR)
Arizona Cardinals RB Andre Ellington: +5 (77 OVR)
Downgrades
Arizona Cardinals WR John Brown: -4 Overall (80 OVR), -6 AWR (81), -5 CIT (80), -7 RTE (81), -5 RLS (76)
Jacksonville Jaguars WR Allen Hurns: -3 Overall (78 OVR), -3 CIT (81), -3 SPC (83), -5 RTE (78)
Jacksonville Jaguars QB Blake Bortles: -3 Overall (74 OVR), -2 AWR (76), -2 SAC (81), -2 MAC (76), -2 DAC (73)
EA’s Three Up & Three Down
EA did highlight six players (3 up, and 3 down) in particular in their blog post. Although none of them received a ratings upgrade or downgrade, keep an eye on them in the future.
Three Up
Kareem Hunt
The Kansas City rookie redeemed himself after a rough start, totaling well over 200 total yards in his official NFL debut, and in doing so solidified himself as the team’s new workhorse QB.
Stefon Diggs
Against a weak New Orleans Saints, Stefon Diggs flourished. If he continues to make excellent catches and play this way, look out for an upgrade.
Calais Campbell
Campbell excelled in his first game as a Jacksonville Jaguar, racking up four sacks.
Three Down
Tom Savage
Kirk Cousins
Andy Dalton
Three quarterbacks, three bad performances. Savage was benched for Deshaun Watson and Dalton threw four interceptions against the Ravens. Unfortunately for Savage and Dalton, neither did much in their week 2 Thursday Night Game to redeem themselves. Savage didn’t play, and Dalton didn’t do much of anything.
Cousins didn’t fair much better in his debut, losing three turnovers in a loss to division rival Eagles.